While you were sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 9 edition

North Korea freed two American citizens from prison and they were returning to the United States on Saturday after the surprise involvement of the top-ranking US intelligence official in their release.

Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, who had been detained for months by the secretive Asian state, were being accompanied home by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, his office said.

“It’s a wonderful day for them and their families,” US President Barack Obama said at the White House. “Obviously we are very grateful for their safe return and I appreciate director Clapper doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission.”

The Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned on Saturday that the world was on the "brink of a new Cold War" at an event to mark 25 years since the Berlin Wall's fall, the German news agency DPA reported.

"The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it has already begun," the 83-year-old said, amid tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

Gorbachev, whose "perestroika" and "glasnost" reforms helped pave the way for the Wall's fall on Nov 9, 1989, is attending three days of festivities in the German capital to mark the event.

WWI poppies fill moat and British hearts at Tower of London, drawing four million viewers

Designed as a tribute to Britain's World War I dead, a blood-red trench of ceramic poppies around the Tower of London has become a national phenomenon as Britons flock to remember the fallen in generations of war.

Up to four million people - 6 per cent of the country's population - are expected to visit the exhibit dubbed "Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red" before the last flower is planted on Tuesday on the anniversary of the end of World War I.

The poignant display is now also one of London's busiest tourist attractions as 888,246 poppies, one for every British soldier who died in the conflict, have been progressively planted in the tower's moat since August.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers complained that his team were denied what he called a "clear penalty" during their 2-1 loss at home to Premier League leaders Chelsea on Saturday.

Chelsea took the spoils thanks to a close-range strike by Diego Costa in the 67th minute, after Emre Can's early opener for Liverpool had been cancelled out by Gary Cahill.

Defeat left Liverpool 15 points off the pace in the table, but Rodgers felt that his side should have been awarded a penalty after a late Steven Gerrard strike appeared to catch Cahill on the arm inside the box. "It was a clear one," Rodgers told BT Sport. "It was quite obvious. It hits his hand, it was a clear, clear penalty, and the referee has a clear view of it. The players gave everything and we deserved at least a point."

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